Open Bar Politics

OK, here we go again. I just had my class reunion adviser ask if we should pay $25.00 for dinner or $30.00 for dinner and an open bar for the first hour. All in all this seams Ok, for we will possibly cause people to come to the reunion early or on time. But, in reality people are going to come when they come. Now the open bar is going to cater to those who feel they need to drink their allotted amount or more to make the extra $5.00 worth it. I know, most likely they will not remember or even think about the $5.00 again. Many won’t even know there was an option. The hall will then pocket the $5.00 and be happy to have made the extra $. With all that said, let’s think about the extra $. It is to be for each of the attendees to have a couple of drinks before the dinner and festivities begin, right?
I personally love a good Guinness or strong stout brew but know they most likely will not have these at the function because they usually only have some kind of watered down, over fermented pilsner (ale). On the other hand, you can go for a hard drink that will get you tipsy quick. All in all the hall is making money. If they didn’t, they would not be in business.
I will be bringing my wife with me and that means we will be paying $10.00 for two watered down Pilsners that I could have purchased from the bar for $5.00. I, in turn am either fronting for someone else’s drinking habits or putting more money in the establishment’s pocket. Hey, I would be more willing to have one of my classmates ask me to buy them that drink with my $5.00. This way, they can keep up their buzz. Then at least they know where it is coming from and will have the guts enough to admit they have a possible drinking problem. I may then have an opportunity to help them to curb their habitual binges.
What is next, health care for all?
Just my $.02.

Go to Where Your Men Work

This is the best article I have read in along time on Pastoral Ministry in action. Thanks to all those Pastors out there in the trenches not making what we "lay men" do for livings feel like it's not enough.

This post is from Buzzard Blog...

Pastors, go to where your men work.

During my past 4 years as a pastor in the Bay Area I quickly discovered that one of the most important things for me to do was to hang out with men in my church at their workplace.

This helped the men. It showed them that I care about their callings, how they spend 50+ hours of their week, and the people they work with.

This helped me. It taught me about the unique opportunities & challenges men were facing in their different workplaces, it opened my eyes to a world bigger than our church, and it helped set new trajectories for my preaching and discipling.

This is how I did it (and how I will continue doing it once I get started in Phoenix):

-Schedule a lunch-time visit with a man in your church. The best use of your time is to make most of these visits with men who are leader types. Schedule to meet the guy at his office, not at the lunch spot.

-Once you show up have the guy show you around his workspace. If you’re naturally curious like me, you’ll quickly have 20 questions about all that you’re seeing around you. Ask your questions. Learn the man’s world.

-Introduce yourself to his co-workers. Don’t tell people you’re a pastor, unless asked or introduced that way. They will find out eventually and they’ll be incredibly surprised that a pastor looks and talks like a normal person and doesn’t spend all his time on church property.

-Once you get the tour, take the man out to lunch (if there’s a lunch place on the work campus, go there, it will lead to more learning about the workplace) and let him talk to you at length about his work. You’ll quickly discover how you can best encourage and empower the man in his calling.

-Always speak out against the “higher calling of ministry” idea if it surfaces. Three out of five times when I meet a man at his work he talks to me about how the work I’m doing as a pastor is “so much more important” than what he’s doing as a software engineer, financial analyst, etc. I always immediately crush and correct this unbiblical view of vocation. Your men need you to tell them that all work is a means of glorifying God, and that working for a church is not superior to working for Google. It’s your job to empower your men, to help them see the nobility of the work God has called them to do.

Men need pastors to jump into the fire of their work world with them and empower them to keep their eyes on Jesus and do their work in Jesus’ honor, whatever that work might be.

Also, at least for me, doing this is a whole lot of fun. It’s been a blast visiting men at their work here in the Bay Area. I’ve been able to see:

-The financial analysis & game development sector at Electronic Arts.

-The inner workings of a Secret Service office.

-A two-person flower shop in the financial district of San Francisco.

-A small architect firm’s hip office quarters.

-A contractor’s truck-office.

-The sprawling, impressive campus at Google.

-Several software companies who do things I still don’t fully understand.

-The venture capital world on Sand Hill Road.

-Several impressive work-from-home offices.

-(And when I didn’t have a man working there, AnneMarie gave me a great tour of Facebook).

Pastors, if you’re not already doing something like this, start incorporating it into your schedule. I think you should aim for a minimum of 1 workplace visit per week. Doing this is part of what keeps my calling fresh and alive, and what keeps me connected to men and the larger working world.

And make sure you budget for this. This is just as important as your book budget. Budget funds to cover meals and mileage for these crucial visits.

(PS. I’ve written this post from an architect/contractor’s home office)

Photo: Took this shot last week of Boston firefighters fighting a 3 alarm fire in Beacon Hill.

For Business Education – Know yourself

Many business failures and failures in life are cause by lack of knowledge in yourself and how you will adapt to the ups and downs of business life. To put it another way, there are men who are ditch diggers that would have been better suited for a profession such as, lawyer, doctor or other professional. In contrast there have been a lot of doctors and lawyers that should have been farmers, laborers or the aforementioned ditch digger.

One of the essentials in starting out in life is being properly educated for the profession you naturally bend to.

The public education system is not always the best system to be used in this evaluation. There are many different options out there; from home schooling to technical and agricultural schools. If parents are open to the possibilities of looking for these alternatives, they may better equip their children.


Consulting the inclinations and adaptations of the youth should be of the utmost importance. We ought not to rely on others before careful consideration has been given to the youth. Success or failure generally hinges on a proper choice of vocation.

One way to accomplish this may be something most people have set aside as archaic: Apprenticeship. The old method of apprenticeship is to try out a profession before spending thousands of dollars on education for something that may never be used. Are you doing the thing you went to school to do? I am not… Here is an idea, go show someone how to do what you do, or go find someone to show you what they do. This just may foster the direction and confidence the next generation needs to find that success.

Prosperity in Business according to:

Safe Methods of Business- 1920

“Let a man in business be thoroughly fitted for the position he occupies, alert to every opportunity and embracing it to its fullest possibility and he is a success.

"Lay a good foundation of business principles and practices. Do a legitimate business. Aim to have a home of your own early in life. Be strictly honest; work hard; be earnest; seek to be an intelligent citizen. Marry a good, healthy, loving girl, keep a clear conscience; fear God and work righteousness, and life’s sun will set in tints of gold and splendor.”

Wow, business men, or men in general do not normally speak that way today. Those who are true successes will agree to all of the above though. Good practices never go out of style.

How Success is Won

Safe Methods of Business, 1920-

“Success is a happy word for the average American. To achieve success is the aim of everyone. It would more frequently be gained were it not that it is too often wrongly understood to be innate smartness. Young man, the sooner you get rid of the notion that you are smart, the sooner will you win success. You may be a genius of exceeding brilliancy, but the chances are one to one hundred thousand that you are not. It is safer to conclude that you are just a plain ordinary mortal and then set about doing the best you can with the capital nature has given you. You may soar so high at first, but then, when your balloon of youthful conceit collapses, you will not have so far to fall. Bear in mind that there are thousands who consider themselves exceptionally smart and through a dependence upon that smartness have made utter failure of life, while on the other hand the apparently dull and stupid youth has by proper means overcome and is enjoying the prosperity that the supposed talented youth has dreamed of.

“Success must be won if it is to be enjoyed. The person who waits for it to come along is like a man who waits for the train to arrive before he gets a ticket. To use an ordinary term, both are apt to “get left.” Men ordinarily fail to succeed, not because they are naturally destined to fail, but they lack business ability, which is made up of equal parts of business knowledge, sterling integrity, strict economy and everlasting push.

“In our day knowledge can be acquired and is in the reach of all who possess the other qualities. The other qualities ought to be in the possession of every youth of sound mind. If not, nature can hardly be blamed for the deficiency.

“Again, success is the child of confidence and perseverance. The line between failure and success is so fine that we scarcely know when we pass it, so fine that we are often on the line and do not know it. How many a man has thrown up his hands at a time when a little more effort, a little more patience, would have achieved success. As the tide goes clear out, so it comes clear in. Sometimes business prospects may seem darkest when really they are on the turn. A little more persistence, a little more effort, and what seemed hopeless failure may turn to glorious success. There is no failure except in no longer trying. There is no defeat except from within, no really insurmountable barrier save our own inherent weakness of purpose.

“A firm resolution, that barriers shall be surmounted, that difficulties shall be cleared away, goes far toward achieving success, Let us repeat, success must be won. It never comes uninvited, never without effort.”

*Isn’t it so true that success must be won through hard work…

The Business Man’s Code 1920

“Business in every age of the world has been the chief pioneer in the march of man’s civilization. Blessings everywhere follow its advancing footsteps. We honor and respect our upright energetic business men. They start every noble project; they build our cities, and rear our manufactories; they whiten the ocean with their sails, and blacken the heavens with the smoke of their steam vessels and furnace fires; they draw treasures from the mines, and give to mankind the various products of every clime and the benefits of skilled labor throughout the world. These results are achieved not by love of ease or idle wish, but by energy that knows no defeat, by that indomitable spirit of push that lays the foundation of true prosperity and builds the structures of success and progress, right over the ruins of defeated projects and apparent failures. The man who was financially ruined by the Chicago fire, but who began his business at the old stand right in the midst of the burnt district and advertised his goods on a shingle the day after the fire, richly deserved that which he received – applause of the world and a successful business, with which his former business bore no comparison. Everybody admires the courageous spirit that overcomes difficulties and manages to rise in the world. It is the invincible spirit of the ‘get there’ that people like.”

We learn this same lesson from Jacob when he was dealing with Laban, his father in-law. Genesis 31 and 32 there is a story of the most amazing genetics project of all time. Jacob was the hardest worker in the herding business and Laban knew it. Jacob had worked for 14 years to gain the hands of Laban’s two daughters, in this time; he had increased Laban’s herds. As wacky as the stick trick was (see Genesis ) and the way the spotted and striped flocks came about, Laban could not deny that Jacob’s hard work was being blessed by God, and in turn blessing him. It intrigued Laban to the point that he wanted to be a part of the process even if Jacob’s herds were growing by leaps and bounds over his.

Jacob could have just packed his bags and gone home, but he didn’t. He stuck it out for another 6 years or so and largely multiplied his herds through the blessing of God.

In other words if life gives you Lemons, turn around and make lemon aid! Then watch and see how the work of your hands will be blessed by God.

The Cannots of Life

When my work for good or evil is done; I cannot go back and repair what was amiss; I cannot now do what has been undone; I cannot recover the hours that have been wasted; I cannot correct the evils which may have resulted from my errors; I cannot overtake and arrest what I have spoken or written; as it has gone out into the world; I cannot summon back the opportunities for usefulness which have been neglected; I cannot obliterate the reality or the memory of wrong thoughts, or wrong motives, or wrong words, or wrong actions. All that has been thought or said or done in these past years has been fixed as a reality never now to be changed.
The only hope of a man – at any age – is not the errors, and sins, and follies, of the past can be changed: it is only that they may be pardoned by a merciful God; that they be covered over by the blood of Christ; that though they must remain forever as facts – facts fully known to the Great Savior of hearts – their quilt may be so taken away that they will not be punished; that by the bloodshed on the cross they themselves may be so covered over – so hidden that they will not be disclosed on the final trial before assembled worlds. That hope, the religion of Christ offers to all. No well-founded hope of heaven ever rests on our merits. The hope of any and every man is found alone in the blood of Jesus Christ which cleans us from all sin! Amen and Amen.

The end of the sermon on May 2, 2010